Africa: HR Strategies for Retaining the Lion’s Share of Top Talent
Africa is home to a vast population rich in potential, with an abundance of young and eager talent ready to learn, work, and contribute. Many multinational corporations have established HR divisions in various African nations to tap into the economic opportunities that such a diverse market represents. While laying the foundational aspects of HR in Africa has presented challenges, global corporations are now intent on refining and elevating their HR strategies, ideally with a view to balancing company, individual, and community objectives.
Mountains and Valleys: Trends in the Labour Market across Africa
Currently agriculture, service, and manufacturing sectors dominate as the continent’s biggest overall employers. However, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and increasing rates of digitalisation, the demand for skilled and semi-skilled workers is steadily growing. With its rapidly expanding population, projections show that the labour force in Africa will greatly outstrip available employment opportunities in the near future.
Already the continent faces high levels of poverty and unemployment. In fact, Africa has an overall unemployment rate of nearly 2% above the global average. Within Africa there are vast disparities by region and country; Southern African countries have the highest youth unemployment rate in Africa, followed by North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and East African countries.
Economic activity and opportunities vary widely across the continent as well. Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa are among the continent’s biggest economies making up nearly 50% of Africa’s GDP. Algeria, with itsrelatively high GDP per capita outranking other lower-middle-income African countries, ranks near the top of the list too, largely due to its vast natural resources.
Nigeria has an abundance of natural resources as well, a growing youth population, and is currently one of the world’s biggest oil exporters. The country is also seeing a high growth rate in the Information and Communication sector.
Egypt is the continent’s third-most populous country, after Nigeria and Ethiopia, and has grown into one of its major industrial hubs. It also leverages trade networks, exporting mostly to nearby countries in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.
Historically, South Africa has attracted many international companies due to its infrastructure, low production costs, and transport links. Some of the big international players include Maersk, Vodafone, Barclays, Volkswagen, and General Electric. South African headquartered companies also tend to dominate the market share across Africa; with Naspers, MTN Group and FirstRand being some of the biggest names. Rather conversely though, stats show that South Africa tops the list globally for unemployment rates at nearly 30%.
However, there are other African countries projected to experience strong economic performance in the coming years, including Niger, Senegal, Libya, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. With all the nuances and challenges in mind, it’s clear that HR Leaders need to adopt a variety of strategies when it comes to attracting and retaining top African talent.
The Brain Drain: African Talent is in Demand Globally
Comprising of 54 countries and home to a population of over 1.4 billion people speaking an estimated 1,500-2,000 languages, the population in Africa is projected to double by 2050. Currently, approximately 60% of the workforce is under the age of 25—in fact, Africa boasts the world’s youngest population with an average age of 19.5, the envy of countries such as Germany and Japan, which have an average age of 46 or 47 years. It is estimated that Africa will be home to 42% of the global youth by 2030. As such, Africa is projected to expand its workforce by more than the rest of the world combined, with this young population being the best-educated and most globally connected in the continent’s history. This presents a unique opportunity for regions in Africa to harness new economic possibilities as a result of this young, technology-savvy, skilled labour force. In the last few years in the HR space alone, a number of our global clients have expressed a strong interest in seeing top African HR talent on shortlists for global searches.
The current lack of jobs, however, as well as the living standards and political instability, has led to an exodus of these young skilled professionals from Africa to the USA, the UK and Europe. And this is creating the African “brain drain,” with Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa being some of the biggest talent exports.
When an individual secures a corporate role in a high-demand specialisation (such as cybersecurity), after gaining two to three years of work experience, they are often headhunted by multinational companies to work on a global platform or move overseas for up to 20 times more money. Some sources say approximately 20,000 skilled professionals leave Africa each year to pursue learning and career opportunities, higher compensation, and a more stable environment. This means that on the local level, organisations are struggling to retain employees which is then driving costs in further recruitment.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) recognises five sub-regions in Africa: North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. In 2003 a sixth region was constituted by the African Union, known as the African Diaspora, to encourage the participation of people of African origin living outside the continent. According to the African Union, these are people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality, and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.
How HR is Reversing the “Brain Drain”
HR leaders are now facing the task of how to reverse this trend and encourage individuals to stay and grow with their organisation or bring people back from overseas with the new skills they have gained. Although certain strategies may work across the continent, there are also country- and region-specific talent retention approaches that many organisations implement. It is important to note that specific reward packages may vary greatly depending on factors like industry, company size, and local regulations. Cultural differences and nuances across regions also have an impact in the types of rewards on offer—for example, with a large Muslim presence across the continent, including Egypt, Morocco, and Sudan, businesses will offer their employees time to attend prayer on Fridays and shorter hours during the month of Ramadan.
There are leading organisations in Africa that have had success in counteracting the brain drain by implementing talent attraction, retention, and engagement programs in these areas:
Career Pathways and Succession Planning
Devising and communicating well-mapped career paths demonstrates a commitment to the employee’s career growth and assists in retaining highly skilled, sought-after talent. There is a shortage of skills at the executive level (particularly those with the experience to navigate ambiguity and complexity) magnified by the drive, especially in South Africa, to attract diverse candidates. Multinational corporations providing talent with opportunities for career growth and international mobility are seeing the benefits.
Employee Experience
Leading global companies have seen success in engaging employees across all levels to co-create and shape the organisation’s values and vision rather than having a “top-down” approach. These companies have created a sense of belonging, advocate for equality and diversity in the workplace, provide mentoring and coaching, promote work/life integration, and provide support for self-care, all of which results in employees feeling valued and heard. This has shown tremendous benefit for engagement and retention. As an example, Accenture (awarded as a Top Employer in South Africa 2023) focuses on these approaches via their Accenture’s HR strategy, fostering higher retention, motivation, and commitment levels.
Hybrid/remote working remains a contentious issue. Businesses that can offer their employees a flexible environment are often seen as highly favourable, although some organisations and countries are better equipped for this than others. Survey data suggests that Nigeria boosts the most hybrid-ready organisations in Africa, with some 56% of enterprises offering a hybrid work model. Mozambique may also see a significant share of hybrid workplaces, with 49% of enterprises opting use this model and another 11 % planning a fully remote workplace.
MTN, a South African mobile telecommunications provider, announced its Anywhere, Anytime Flexibility value proposition in 2022. This proposition allows the option of flexible working for specified durations.
Talent Development and Learning
Mercedes Benz South Africa is placing lifelong learning and continued education at the centre of its talent programs. Between 2021 and 2022, Mercedes-Benz South Africa spent in excess of R167 million (USD8.84 million) on various leadership development programs, technical programs, graduate development program, student internship program, disability learnerships, educational assistance program for children of employees in Grades 1–12, and bursaries for tertiary students.
Huawei (ranked as a Top Employer in several territories across Africa) recently announced a plan to develop the ICT skills of 100,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The organisation announced a new digital skills program named LEAP (Leadership, Employability, Advancement, and Possibilities). The LEAP program aims to help 100,000 upskill in various ICT-related fields.
PWC offers all employees access to Vantage, the company’s learning management portal. This allows personnel to design their own development plans and manage their learning.
University Partnerships
As organisations fight in small talent pools in niche areas such as cyber security, engineering, analytics, and healthcare, the demand has driven salaries up to a point where the skills are often unaffordable. To address this, Vodafone started a homegrown program partnering with universities to ensure they are training and developing people for the skills needed. Ashiokai Akrong, Human Resources Director, and the team at Vodafone, have implemented Vodafone Ghana’s Female Engineer Program, a partnership between Vodafone and universities. The company invests in female student engineers who are paired with mentors and undertake an internship with the organisation in their final year. This program has proven highly successful, with much of the success being attributed to the impact of the in-person, one-to-one interactions with mentors. For new graduates coming in with no experience in a workplace, this has been invaluable and will ideally lead to higher retention and longer tenure.
Bayer, recently recognised as a Top Employer in South Africa and Kenya, launched its graduate program in 2023 and offers positions in several countries, including South Africa, Malawi, and Kenya.
Competitive Total Rewards
Improving one’s quality of life through attaining higher compensation and rewards is a key factor in attrition. It can be difficult when competing with relatively higher packages and currency upside in locations such as the USA, Europe, UK or the Gulf. Multinational companies are working on creative solutions in this space and must be prepared to pay people well and offer benefits including child-care leave, stock options, healthcare plans, and wellness programs to attract and retain the best talent.
Although there is wide gender pay disparity across the continent and significant challenges remain, is progress being made. For example, three African countries, namely Rwanda, Namibia and South Africa, are among the top 20 countries for gender pay equality according to the World Economic Forum.
South Africa has a fairly developed economy compared to some other African countries, and as such, many international companies operating there may offer competitive reward packages similar to those found in Western countries. This tends to include a combination of base salary, bonuses, medical aid, and retirement contributions. Comparatively, in Nigeria, companies may offer similar reward structures, but there may be more emphasis on non-monetary benefits due to the volatile economic environment. Stock options, profit-sharing schemes, and performance-based incentives are common.
In countries where food inflation is particularly high, like Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone, easing the cost of living for employees can vastly improve retention and quality of life, so businesses often offer food and grocery benefits for their employees. This also provides certain business opportunities. One such example is M-Kula, an app developed by Sodexo Kenya that allows companies to provide their employees with digital food vouchers.
Maternity/paternity benefits are also a big draw; although legislated by each country’s government, many organisations may choose to offer over and above the basic legal requirement. For example, Safaricom, which is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region, offers a maternity leave allowance of four months (where the mandatory requirement is three) and flexible working hours for six months upon return to work. Their facilities include a crèche with caretakers and teachers, and staff are encouraged to bring children to work.
Medical/Health Insurance is another sought-after benefit in many African countries. There are different stances on medical insurance across nations. In Benin, for example, it is mandatory for employers to provide medical insurance. In South Africa, on the other hand, employers are not required to offer their staff private health insurance plans, known as Medical Aid locally. Generally, the public health sector in South Africa is considered substandard, so Medical Aid contributions as become a common benefit offering among South African employers. Many other African countries, like Mauritius and in Burkina Faso, also do not have medical insurance as a mandatory benefit.
The above demonstrates just a few of the strategies seen in the market, it’s clear that organisations need to remain agile and innovative in their approach to talent retention and receptive to the nuances within specific African countries.
The Future for this Great Continent:
For all the challenges and complexities, it’s evident that Africa offers a wealth of opportunity and stands to be a significant player in the global economy. There is an abundance of strong talent across the continent and multinational organisations can benefit from the natural resources, available land, and young workforce in many African countries.
Progressive HR strategies and talent management programs are needed to attract and retain and combat the “brain drain”. Human Resource professionals will play a pivotal role in navigating these challenges by championing strategic talent management initiatives, fostering continuous learning and development, and creating inclusive and diverse workplaces that attract and retain top talent. To unlock Africa's full potential, there is an urgent need for visionary HR leadership that aligns talent strategies with business objectives, invests in employee training and development, and promotes a culture of innovation, collaboration, and resilience.
By embracing these HR-led reforms and harnessing the power of its human capital, Africa can not only overcome its talent paradox but also emerge as a global hub for innovation, creativity, and sustainable growth.
